 |
London | South-east | South-west | Lancashire |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Census 1871 | 15.5% | 10.6% | 8.3% | 12.4% |
| 1840–52 | 14.9% | 21.1% | 23% | 5.3% |
| New Zealand Company 1839–50 | 25.9% | 20.8% | 26.4% | 3.4% |
| Auckland 1840–52 | 20.1% | 17.2% | 21.8% | |
| 1853–70 | 17.3% | 12.7% | 16.2% | 8.6% |
| Miners – Otago 1853–70 | 7.8% | 8.5% | 36.8% | 9.4% |
| 1871–80 | 15.8% | 15.1% | 18.7% | 4.7% |
| 1881–1914 | 18.8% | 12.9% | 12.2% | 11.6% |
The table and graph suggest:
- London was an important birth-place for immigrants to New Zealand, but no more than its representation in England as a whole.
- The 'home counties' of the South-east sent a large number of people to New Zealand, especially in the 1840s. Kent appears to have been a strongly 'New Zealand-prone' county.
- The counties of the South-west, especially Cornwall, were strongly over-represented among the immigrants. There was a spectacular inflow of people from this area among the miners reflecting the strong tradition of tin-mining in Cornwall and the decline of that industry from the 1840s. But the numbers from the South-west were consistently high until 1880 with over twice as many likely to migrate to New Zealand as their proportion of the population in England.
- The more industrial areas of the North-west, including Lancashire, were not well represented among immigrants to New Zealand until the end of the 19th century.
- If we add the Cornish immigrants to those from Ireland and Scotland, it is evident that the Celtic fringe of Great Britain in fact comprised a majority of New Zealand's founding British immigrants.
